Complete Newbie to Linux

Archaic · 07-02-2005, 09:03 PM

I was just wondering if there was a certain branch that MEPIS was under or anything, because when I was going to download WINE, I wasn't sure which it was under.

librano · 07-02-2005, 10:05 PM

hi there...

if i understood your question right.... MEPIS is a Debian based distribution... so programs you download for mepis should be of the 'xxx.deb' type... i havent installed mepis to my harddrive YET... i have used an older version from cd... and i think it has facilities to install from other package management formats... eg rpm and tar.gz ... not sure... but i will find out as soon as i finish downloading the latest... 3.3.1-1... my impression of mepis is really good so far

take care

aysiu · 07-02-2005, 10:15 PM

I'm not sure what you're asking. Mepis isn't under a branch. Mepis is a distribution. It usually comes in CD form and boots as a live CD that can also install itself onto your hard drive if you click "install me." Once Mepis is installed, you can get Wine by going to Synaptic Package Manager and searching for Wine (you may have to enable extra repositories by checking all the boxes except non-us in "settings" > "repositories"). You can also do this from the command-line by typing su apt-get update then su apt-get install wine.

mos · 07-02-2005, 10:25 PM

MEPIS is equivilent to debian unstable which is also known as debian sid when getting packages.

Archaic · 07-02-2005, 11:07 PM

Thank you, but librano already answered my question. That's what I was getting at, but didn't really know how to approach it. Now I can get WINE, hopefully.

acanton · 07-02-2005, 11:41 PM

There is a wine deb package. So let Synaptic or Kpackage install it for you.

I thought Mepis came with wine? No? Kanotix does.

Personally, I've found wine to be a waste of time. If you don't have the time to fool with it spend the $40 and buy Codewearver's Crossover Office. It runs the MS Office suite very well.... a lot better than wine does. (Actually Crossover is wine .... but done 'right.' )

Al

Archaic · 07-02-2005, 11:53 PM

I tried using Synaptic, but I got a lot of errors, and I don't know why..

acanton · 07-03-2005, 12:24 AM

Quote:

Originally posted by Archaic
I tried using Synaptic, but I got a lot of errors, and I don't know why..

Um... like...uh... what errors did you get? We can't read your mind :-)

Al

Archaic · 07-03-2005, 12:51 AM

Not all that sure, I can't read period.

anticapitalista · 07-03-2005, 02:23 AM

Quote:

Originally posted by acanton
There is a wine deb package. So let Synaptic or Kpackage install it for you.

I thought Mepis came with wine? No? Kanotix does.

Personally, I've found wine to be a waste of time. If you don't have the time to fool with it spend the $40 and buy Codewearver's Crossover Office. It runs the MS Office suite very well.... a lot better than wine does. (Actually Crossover is wine .... but done 'right.' )

Al

Al, My Mepis 3.3 came with wine.

Archaic, you probably need to edit, as root, what is called your sources list. (root/etc/apt/sources.lst) You need to comment out(#)the non -us ones as they are no longer used.

aysiu · 07-03-2005, 02:36 AM

Actually, in Mepis, you don't need to edit the sources.list directly. In Synaptic Package Manager, you can go graphically straight to settings > repositories and check or uncheck boxes. Check all the boxes that are non-us. Then, click "Reload." Then search for Wine. Click the checkbox next to Wine to install it. Then click "Apply."

If you get errors, please post them here. Otherwise, we can't help you.

Archaic · 07-03-2005, 03:34 AM

I went into Kpackage, and I went to do a fixup, and it's been running for like 10+ minutes.. what is the purpose of it, and should I let it continue?

anticapitalista · 07-03-2005, 04:45 AM

Don't know why you did that, I've never done it myself.

1. Do you still get errors when you use synaptic/kpackage to download a package?
2. Did you change the sources.list mentioned above?
3. If you haven't changed your sources list, you MUST otherwise you won't be able to download properly.

In kpackage, click settings/configure kpackage. You should have apt debian enabled. Click on Location of packages and make sure ONLY the following (for now at least) are checked.
deb ftp://ftp.us.debian.org/debian testing main contrib non-free
deb ftp://ftp.us.debian.org/debian unstable main contrib non-free
deb http://apt.mepis.org/3.3 unstable main
deb ftp://ftp.nerim.net/debian-marillat/ unstable main

Once this is sorted out, you should do an apt-get update. This can be done through (as root) in konsole, or throgh kpackege (special/apt debian/update) or synaptic. This will simply keep your sourc list information up to date. It installs nothing.
Then, through apt-get install XXXXXX(whatever package you like) through konsole OR
install through synaptic/kpackage.

My advice until you get confident is DO NOT DO apt-get UPGRADE. It MIGHT cause problems.

anticapitalista · 07-03-2005, 03:42 PM

Quote:

Al, My Mepis 3.3 came with wine.

Sorry, it didn'nt.
I just used the live cd to try and burn a cd through K3B using the same cd writer as the one then has the live cd on (some other thread here-it didn't work BTW as I thought) and I noticed that wine wasn't there.
I must have installed it through apt-get.
Anyway you're right about it's usefulness. I think I've only used it twice, and that was just to experiment.